


your one wild and precious

by dogeared



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-01
Updated: 2011-05-01
Packaged: 2017-10-18 21:10:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dogeared/pseuds/dogeared
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Gracie's birthday, Five-0 style.</p>
            </blockquote>





	your one wild and precious

**Author's Note:**

  * For [robanybody](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=robanybody).



When Gracie chooses a sea-creature theme for her ninth birthday, her celebration is a weekend-long extravaganza that includes fifteen of her closest, loudest friends, a glass-bottom boat tour and swimming with the dolphins (on Stan and Rachel's dime), a trip to the aquarium (on Danny's), and more pineapple pizza and pink-frosted cupcakes than Danny knows what to do with, and his heart and his stomach and his eardrums all ache by the time he's alone in his apartment again Sunday night.

He weathers the post-party hangover for the next two days, feeling like he's been run over by a train of nine-year-olds and taking comfort in the fact that at least he's off the hook for the whole birthday thing until next year. But the next weekend he has Gracie, his team insists on having their own shindig for her. Danny tries to stop it—Grace is already treading dangerously close to getting-spoiled territory—but Chin just shakes his head sadly, says, _brah, she's family_ , and all three of them look at him like he's willfully, personally ruining their lives, and Danny caves faster than he's comfortable admitting.

It turns out not to be as bad as Danny thinks—it's nice, actually, just the five of them at Steve's, and if Gracie maybe starts out a little shy, she gets over it fast. Uncle Chin gives her a huge, heavy book on Hawaiian sea life, with glossy full-color pictures and lots of text, a grown-up book, and Gracie treats it like it's a treasure. Kono gives her a voucher for Kalakaua's Special Surfing Lessons, all sunshine and smiles, and Danny bares his teeth back at her and assures Grace she'll only have to wait seven or eight years to redeem it. And Steve watches carefully, his gaze flickering between Gracie's face and Danny's, like his approval matters just as much, or more, than Grace's does, while Grace unwraps his gift, pulls back tissue paper to reveal her very own (pink, kid-sized) set of fins and mask and snorkel.

They end up at a protected little cove, just them and their snorkels and a crazy rainbow kaleidoscope of fish and coral, beautiful like nothing Danny's ever seen, and it's better, at least in Danny's mind, than the whole ridiculous birthday blowout, because it's not some stranger pointing out the sights or wrangling a dolphin; it's Chin holding Gracie steady while a sea turtle swims almost close enough for her to touch; it's Kono showing her how to swim like a fish; it's Steve maintaining a perimeter around all of them, herding them together and safe, sleek as a shark and making ridiculous faces at Danny through his mask, a contradiction in swim trunks that makes Danny break the surface laughing and spluttering and grabbing for Steve's arm as he swims past.

It's a good thing dinner is burgers and dogs on the grill, because Danny's pretty sure he couldn't stomach eating what he watched swim around all afternoon, and he'd hate to have Gracie have a meltdown for the same reason. She's fading fast, anyway—she eats half of a burger the size of her head, still in her swimsuit and wrapped in an enormous fluffy towel, and then she zonks out right in the chair she's sitting in. Danny'll bundle her up and take her inside soon, but it's still early, warm and pleasant, and Danny feels the glow of a good day and a full belly. Steve passes beers around, settles in and stretches out his long legs so that his toes nudge against Danny's ankle and stay there, and Danny's content enough that Kono's surfing horror stories—the time with the shark! the other time with the shark! the time with the monster wave and the undertow!—don't even get him worked up. He just grins and shakes his head, salutes her with his bottle, sends some silent thanks out into the universe that this, right here, right now, is his life.


End file.
